Ms Samia Nkrumah, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) Member of Parliament for Jomoro at the weekend challenged gender advocates to join the Elections 2012 contest as they seek to empower other women to contest for elective positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmpowering women through capacity building workshops are good but more importantly we need all gender advocates to join in the contest for political position especially parliamentary seats in Elections 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost gender advocates have leverage in the social-political environment, which must translate into assuming leadership positions to influence national policies,\u201d Ms Nkrumah told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on the sidelines of the workshop to develop a women\u2019s manual at Aburi.<\/p>\n
The workshop on the theme: \u201cA Woman\u2019s Manual Towards Increased Women\u2019s Parliamentary Representation\u201d, was organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for representatives of four political parties with representation in Parliament.
\nSharing her experience at the workshop, Ms Nkrumah who is seeking for a second term bid for the Jomoro seat, said the path to gender equality must start from the local level, through the political grass root structures to the national levels into governance.<\/p>\n
She noted that the only way for achieving gender parity is through legislation, without which it is not going to work, \u201cas the terrain is becoming more and more difficult for women\u201d.
\nMs Nkrumah who is also contesting for the CPP National Chairmanship slot, encouraged women aspirants never to be discouraged by negative tags, name calling and personality attacks<\/p>\n
\u201cYou must develop the stamina to go through the rough campaign terrain\u2026you need to be bold, firm and courageous and develop strong mental aptitude that the impossible is possible.
\n\u201cYour private life would be hit, but its important to focus on your strong famine qualities to move on\u2026never engage in personality attacks\u201d.
\nMs Nkrumah also advised aspiring women parliamentary candidates to form a strong team involving opinion leaders, traditional and religious leaders in their networking for the constituency.<\/p>\n
Mrs Beatrice Boateng, New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, appealed to the media to support women aspirants, \u201cwe are your sisters, wives, mothers and colleagues, we need encouragement rather than the constant personal attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n
She also urged gender advocacy groups to offer financial support to women aspirants as \u201cwe need the cash to move around\u201d.
\nMrs Boateng encouraged women aspirants especially those who failed at their first attempt never to be discouraged but mobilize and fight on, engage in social services to help your communities among other things.<\/p>\n
Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba, Deputy Minister of Women and Children Affairs, noted that the seed of democracy lies in the principle that the legitimacy of power to make decisions about peoples lives, their society and their country should derive from a choice by those who will be affected.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many centuries the basis of this legitimacy was limited and many were excluded from making a choice: bonded persons, those without property or formal education and overwhelmingly, women were not given the franchise and so did not have a choice.
\n\u201cThe men folks were the voices of the voices of women\u2026.this unacceptable situation has since the past few decades changed. However, the quantum of representation in national legislatures is not significant and continues to dwindle especially in our case\u201d, she noted.
\nHajia Gariba said: \u201cit is my conviction that if policy decisions and laws are to be made for the benefit of all members of society and in particular its larger segment of women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the extent to which the decision-making body is able to take into account the experience of the broad spectrum of the society will be the gauge of the degree to which its decisions will reflect its aspirations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe representation of women and the inclusion of their perspective and experience into decision-making process will inevitably lead to solutions that are more viable and durable and satisfy a broader spectrum of society.
\nShe said: \u201cThat is the basis of our drive that women should be part of the process\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hajia Gariba noted that despite the drive and efforts women have made they continue to face difficulty in entering institutions of governance and high level decision making.
\n\u201cPolitical Parties failed to choose women as candidates and the electorates reflect and act on the gender stereotypes in society by voting for men\u201d, she stated.
\nThe Deputy Minister therefore called on women to organize both inside and outside their political parties and encourage political parties to set down clear rules for selection of parliamentary candidates.<\/p>\n
The Political Parties Manual on Women in Politics in Ghana seeks to advocate that women\u2019s participation in governance can be facilitated by strengthening their representation and candidature in the election process.<\/p>\n
The manual is being developed by the IEA, a think-tank, in collaboration with the National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP), Convention Peoples Party (CPP) and the Peoples National Convention (PNC).<\/p>\n
Leadership of the various political parties are expected to adopt and sign at a later date the Political Parties Manual on Women in Politics in Ghana.
\nRepresentatives of NDC, NPP, CPP and PNC who have representation in parliament, as well as media practitioners, female members of parliament, aspiring parliamentarians and educationists are attending the three-day workshop.<\/p>\n
Ms Samia Nkrumah, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) Member of Parliament for Jomoro at the weekend challenged gender advocates to join the Elections 2012 contest as they seek to empower other women to contest for elective positions. \u201cEmpowering women through capacity building workshops are good but more importantly we need all gender advocates to join in the contest for political position especially parliamentary seats in Elections 2012. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
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